State and Local

April 30, 2012, PORTSMOUTH — Help is on the way for struggling business owners in the form of likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, said New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte during a campaign appearance with Romney.

Romney highlighted rising gas prices during his late-morning appearance at the Portsmouth Fish Pier today, and argued government regulation is one of the largest impediments to the improvement of the American economy.

Yellow and green fishing traps served as the backdrop for Romney's appearance, which took place beside the entrance on a rocky outcropping of land at the foot of Portsmouth Harbor.

Romney and Ayotte were surrounded by more than a dozen local fishermen, and used the setting to highlight new limits on commercial fishing that went into effect in 2010.

Romney said regulators are multiplying like “proverbial rabbits” under Obama's administration, and “union stooges” are controlling competitive bidding processes to keep labor markets closed.

With the masts of fishing vessels bobbing behind him, Romney explained that fishermen are suffering both from strict limitations from the government and the rising price of fuel. Romney said commercial fishermen burn an average of about 100 gallons of diesel fuel a day, and the president's reluctance to tap the country's oil resources will only exacerbate the price increases.

“We need a President who understands the power of free enterprise because he's lived it, and I have, and I will, and I'll make sure that's part of our future,” Romney said.

Read the full story at Foster's Daily Democrat.

 

 

The Swampscott Yacht Club is launching a community lecture series called “Fish Tales from the Fish House.’’

Richard Patch, a longtime fisherman who has been lobstering from Swampscott for 40 years, presents the inaugural talk and video on Wednesday evening.

“There are many colorful stories to be told about Swampscott’s past and present, and we thought Richard was a perfect choice to start off what we hope will be a new community lecture tradition in Swampscott,’’ said Steve Speranza, rear commodore of the yacht club. “Gloucester may have ‘Wicked Tuna’ but Swampscott has its own lobster tales.’’

The aim of the lecture series is to share the richness of community life and the history of coastal Swampscott, as well as introduce community members to the Fish House.

Read the complete story from The Boston Globe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PORTSMOUTH — April 29, 2012 – Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will make an appearance in the city on Monday, April 30, with U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.

According to Romney's press office, Romney and Ayotte will hold an event at 10:50 a.m. at the Portsmouth Fish Pier at 1 Peirce Island Road.

The press office did not release details on what the pair may talk about. However, Ayotte has joined with other senators including Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., to seek changes in federal regulations of the fishing industry, including the controversial "catch share" system that has been in effect since May 2010.

Read the complete story from Sea Coast Online.

 

 

 

 

 

YAKIMA, Wash. — Native American tribes and federal officials celebrated the completion of the last of 31 tribal fishing access sites along the lower Columbia River on Monday, following years of collaboration to restore fishing rights to treaty tribes.

Congress authorized the federal government in 1988 to establish access sites for tribes guaranteed fishing rights by treaties but whose traditional fishing areas were flooded when the lower Columbia River dams were built. Construction of the first sites began in 1995.

The last site near Dallesport, a 64-acre site about 75 miles east of Portland, includes eight campsites for tribal members, a boat launch and dock, restroom and shower facilities, net repair racks and a fish cleaning table.

In addition, the site required extensive environmental restoration by workers, most of whom are Pacific Northwest tribal members. The site cost $4.8 million.

Read the complete Associated Press Story in The Bend Bulletin

 

 

 

 

 

GLOUCESTER, Mass. — April 27, 2012– On May 1 the NOAA Fisheries will implement a 22% reduction in the allowable catch of Gulf of Maine cod.  NOAA announced that fishermen will be allowed to catch up to 6,700 metric tons of Gulf of Maine cod in 2012.  This 22% cut in allocation of GOM cod will have significant economic impact to the City of Gloucester, a port of 197 active commercial fishing vessels grossing $60 million in landings during the last fishing year.

The City of Gloucester Fisheries Commission thanks our industry and political representatives that have worked so hard to obtain this compromise interim ruling.  We recognize our Mayor Carolyn Kirk, Senators Kerry and Brown, Congressmen Tierney, Frank and Keating in particular.  We also thank State Senator Bruce Tarr and State Rep. Ann Margaret Ferrante.  We are grateful to the federal government for working collaboratively with stakeholders in an unprecedented and encouraging manner and for approving this interim action.

The importance of GOM cod to the fishermen and economy of Gloucester cannot be overemphasized.  We ask the governors of all the region’s states to cooperate with the fishing industry and our City to craft an emergency disaster assistance package for the impacted fishermen – especially since the fishing industry has complied with all regulations and has not exceeded the total allowable catch for Gulf of Maine cod since 1996.  Fishermen are not responsible for what has taken place.  The Commission joins with the industry in a request for disaster relief and supports the attached March 26, 2012 Northeast Seafood Coalition letter to the governors making this request.

The stark difference between the two assessments in 2008 and 2011 threatens all fishing related businesses in our City, and it is essential to reassess such wildly different findings and conflicting results, for a fishing community like Gloucester is to exist.   The current 22% cut in GOM cod taking effect this May is but a harbinger of far deeper cuts in allowable catches that are being discussed for cod and other stocks as well to take effect in May 2013.  The Commission is gravely concerned that these cuts will be too severe for our port infrastructure to survive.

Regardless of current law, our fishermen should not be shut out of the fishery if the decrease in the measured biomass was in error or occurred primarily for natural reasons that are not accounted for in the models. 

Commission chairman David Bergeron asked, “Why should our fishermen be put out of business because Mother Nature didn’t read the Magnuson Act?”

Before catch limits are established for 2013, the City of Gloucester calls on federal and state agencies to work with fishermen and scientists to develop a reasonable management response that addresses legitimate biological concerns for the resource, is based on our full scientific understanding of the dynamics of fisheries and oceans ecosystems, and incorporates greater flexibility in the definition of “overfishing” in the Magnuson Act to  allow fishing communities to remain economically viable through this assessment crisis.

Read the Northeast Seafood Coalition's letter to the Governors

 

 

 

 

 

April 26, 2012, MONTEREY BAY – Last week, fishing interests tried to insert a provision in a state bill that could have led to the return of bottom trawling in Monterey Bay, a fishing practice banned for the past six years.
In the wake of that effort, local environmentalists are touting a new survey suggesting that the controversial fishing method – which can wreck ocean floors and sweeps up tons of unwanted fish – isn't needed to develop a thriving halibut fishery.

Studying three Santa Cruz-based commercial fishermen, Oceana originally began the study as part of a working group on trawling put together by Assemblymember Bill Monning, D-Carmel.
That group was formed after a 2006 bill that banned trawling from most state waters, which typically include a three-mile buffer from shore. Trawling still occurs near the coast of Ventura and off the far Northern California coast.

But fishermen were surprised when the state said it also considered the ban to include the entirety of Monterey Bay. That ended local trawling for halibut, which can be hard to catch but which were traditionally fished from Soquel to Moss Landing.

Monning convened a task force to look at the issue, though it has not met in about a year. It never completed a planned socioeconomic study looking at the impacts of fishing regulations on fisheries.

Read the full story at the San Jose Mercury News.

 

April 18, 2012 – Recreational anglers taking cod in New Hampshire waters should be aware of new interim state rules, likely to take effect on May 1, 2012, which reduce the minimum length and creel limits for Atlantic cod and make our state rules compatible with new Federal regulations.

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department is proposing to make the following changes to the rules for the recreational taking of Atlantic cod: reduce the minimum size of cod from 24 inches to 19 inches; reduce the size of fillets from 14 inches to 12 inches; and reduce the daily limit from 10 to 9 cod.

The interim rule proposal will go before New Hampshire's Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules on April 20. The interim rule will be effective for no more than 180 days, during which time the N.H. Fish and Game Department will move forward to implement these measures through regular rules using the standard rulemaking process that includes a public hearing and comment period.

The interim rules are necessary because on April 2, 2012, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that they are implementing federal rules to reduce the fishing mortality rate for Gulf of Maine cod as required under the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation Act. Federal rules for recreational fishermen will reduce the possession limit from 10 to 9 fish and the minimum size from 24 to 19 inches. The federal rules will go into effect on May 1, 2012, and will apply to fish caught in federal waters (3-200 miles from shore) and anglers on a party/charter vessel with a federal permit.

Read the full story here.

 

 

April 19, 2012 – Why would a lobster bait and fish company buy a facility an hour away from the ocean?

Oddly enough, location.

Family-owned New England Fish Co. has purchased a 39,000-square-foot building at 1833 Auburn Road in Turner. The facility is completely inland, despite the fact New England Fish Co. relies on the coast for its business.

Sibling co-owners Suzannah and Ryan Raber have been leasing the former Cooper Brothers Apple Processing Plant for nearly a year, using it for long-term, overflow storage of lobster bait, fishing nets and boat gear.

"It's actually quicker to get to our customer base from Turner than it is from Portland because of summertime Route 1 traffic," Ryan Raber said.

Unlike short-term storage, which requires frequent trips in and out, the long-term storage facility in Turner allows New England Fish Co. to use big trucks to pick up bait less often, bring that bait to Portland and then use smaller trucks to distribute it to customers along the coast. 

Read the full article at the Sun Journal.

 

 

April 18, 2011 – A nonprofit found that many Los Angeles County restaurants and grocery stores are incorrectly labeling seafood.

Tests on seafood sold at Los Angeles-area sushi bars, other restaurants, and grocery stores show that more than half is incorrectly labeled, a nonprofit organization that advocates for ocean protection said this week.

"It is disheartening to know that consumers are not getting wait they pay for," said Beth Lowell, campaign director at Oceana, which is based in Washington, D.C. "Seafood fraud is not only ripping off consumers, but it is putting their health at risk and undermining their efforts to eat sustainably."

DNA testing carried out by Oceana confirms that 55 percent of the seafood sampled was mislabeled, according to an Oceana statement.

In May and December of 2011, Oceana staff and supporters collected 119 seafood samples from grocery stores, restaurants and sushi venues in Los Angeles and Orange counties, the group said.

Read the full story at Walnut Patch.

 

 

April 19, 2012, BREWER, Maine — The state’s scallop advisory council on Wednesday tacitly supported a preliminary proposal from Maine Department of Marine Resources to implement a multiyear rotating closure schedule before next winter’s scallop season begins.

Meeting at Jeff’s Catering, the advisory council revisited its earlier recommendations to DMR to reduce the number of fishing days from 70 days to 43 and the daily harvest limit from 200 pounds to 135. DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher told the council that the department is interested in implementing a 10-year rotating closure schedule as a way to rebuild and manage scallop stocks rather than imposing tighter restrictions on when and how much fishermen can catch.

“There’s got to be a better way to skin a cat,” he said.

Rather than going with its earlier recommendations, the council voted Wednesday to propose instead that fishermen keep the existing 70-day season format, which has been in place since it was reduced from 132 days in 2008. And rather than reduce the daily per-fisherman limit from 200 pounds to 135 pounds, it recommended a daily limit of 185 pounds, which is roughly the equivalent of four five-gallon buckets.

In addition, the closed areas being considered by DMR, which have yet to be defined or selected, would replace a dozen closure areas that have been in place since 2009, when declining scallop stocks prompted DMR into action. This winter’s scallop season ended at the end of March but the existing closure areas technically don’t expire until next month. According to DMR officials, scallop stocks in the areas that have been closed have rebounded over the past three years.

Read the full article at the Bangor Daily News.